How to Liberate Yourself from Anxiety and Lose Your Mind
Henny Penny’s Demise
Anxiety can be triggered by most anything. There’s a folktale about Henny Penny called ‘Chicken Little’ that goes something like this: one day, as Henny Penny, the chicken, walks through the woods, a falling acorn hits her on the head. Assuming the fallen acorn indicated a dire calamity, in a panic Henny Penny runs to tell all her neighbors: “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” All her chicken friends run into the fox’s den for shelter, and sadly, they never come out.
I found myself trapped in the all-consuming fox’s den for over five decades and not a day went by when I wasn’t spooked by something. It was emotionally exhausting to be at the effect of constant dire voices in my head and the cumulative affect was debilitating depression. I rarely left the house, but I remember spiraling into a panic attack one day, in the middle of the produce aisle in the grocery store when my cellphone rang. It was my 19-year old daughter who rarely called me during the day unless she was in a bind. It’s pretty amazing how fast I convinced myself that she was calling me on her deathbed to express her final “I love you.” In fact, she was just calling to remind me to pick up some fresh garlic.
Was everyone this crazy? I read everything I could find, consulted with psychotherapists, took anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds, over ate and prayed hard for the day when I would be rid of this malady that was felt like it was destroying my life.
Busting Chicken Little
I reasoned that if I could get rid of my anxiety, I would find the peace I so longed for. In searching for the cure it became essential to bust a few beliefs. I’m sharing them because I have a feeling you’ll be able to relate and even come up with a few of your own:
Myth #1: Anxiety is bad.
Busted: It’s really about mind over matter. Anxious thoughts trigger the body to release adrenaline and a number of other stress hormones which cause many undesirable symptoms like a racing heart. Like a runaway train once that ‘what if’ thought that drags us right into the future, is triggered, the present moment is obliterated and before we know it, we have caused our own train wreck. Anxiety can teach us to live in the present moment. So, anxiety is good.
Myth #2: If we just find the right cure, we can avoid feeling fear.
Busted: There is nothing wrong with the energy of fear once we peel the scary story off. Sensation without a story is pure sensation. The key is to teach the mind something new, which is instead of dwelling on the ‘what if’s’, to drop underneath the story around that into pure sensation which will keep us in the ever-present Now. In the Now, all is well. It’s such a relief and so comforting to be with a deepening vortex of pure sensation that is ever-present beneath the scary stories we’ve been subjecting ourselves to!
Myth #3: We probably inherited a biochemical disposition for anxiety and the only way to get rid of it, therefore, is medication to correct the biochemical imbalance.
Busted: If this were true, I’d still be on anti-depressants. Both of my parents were extremely anxious. My dad took Valium and my mother was on Zoloft. They had good reason to be anxious, as they both grew up under horrific circumstances.I was on various meds for a long time until I learned that I could heal on my own, without the drugs.
Myth #4: If we replace fearful thoughts with happy thoughts, we can manifest what we desire.
Busted: If this were true then all the people who make vision boards, do positive affirmations daily and cancel out fearful thoughts would have everything they want. The reverse is true. It’s great to think positively and be grateful. On the other hand, if we deny or resist fear, then it persists. And I know a lot of terrified people who do positive affirmations on a daily basis because they’ve read ‘The Secret’. The real secret is to honor all of our feelings and not favor only the ones that feel good. Honoring only the ones that feel good is like favoring one of your children over the other. It’s unloving and hurtful to the one you don’t favor. And that’s bound to cause problems. Seriously. You gotta love even the tough kids.
Myth #5: We should be ashamed of being anxious.
Busted: Negative self-judgments hurt. If you had an anxious child would you shun her/him? The same applies to energy in our body. It’s ours. If energy feels uncomfortable, we can explore with loving acceptance and bring resources like a parent who comforts a child who feels bad. What doesn’t thrive on love?
Making Good Use of Anxious Feelings
A great alternative, and one that worked wonders for me, is to follow sensation. In other words, we can use our mind versus letting our mind use us. Tolle suggests we use the mind to develop focused attention on our inner body. By training the mind in this way, we ironically, lose it because the mind cannot explore the inner body sensations and create scary stories at the same time. Befriending this subtle energy is the secret.
We’re Sitting on It
The ancient Hindus believed that we have a subtle energy system in our body called the chakra system. There are seven major chakras from the top of our head (seventh chakra) to the base of our spine (first) and all those in between. Here are the chakras and what they represent:
Seventh: Crown – connection with Spirit
Sixth: Third eye – mind, imagination
Fifth: Throat – expression & communication
Fourth: Heart – love for self and others
Third: Solar Plexus – Will/desire, empowerment
Second: Sacrum – sexual & emotional energies
First: Base of spine – Root – security, belonging.
When the chakras are balanced, we feel at ease, but when a chakra is out of whack, then we experience ‘dis-ease.’ We can all learn to explore and discern the subtle energy in our chakras and I highly recommend some form of inner body meditation to help you do this. When you use your mind to explore the sensations a funny thing happens to the scary thoughts. You loose track of them. In the event something that feels threatening happens, unless it is an emergency, I drop into my body sensations now and whatever seemed ominous to me, dissolves.
I like the Running Energy practice at www.processcoaching.com/running energy. I recorded my own voice reading the script and followed along at first until I memorized it. It takes about 5 or 10 minutes for the Running Energy practice and for those of us who can’t meditate in the traditional ‘om-y’ kind of way because of our ‘monkey mind’ this is a great alternative. It is fun, deeply relaxing and good for your body and soul.
So really, what we’ve been trying to get rid of is right under our nose and a part of our body, so it seems sill and counter productive to try to get rid of it. I wouldn’t consider getting rid of a body part, so why not value and befriend subtle energy, especially if it brings peace of mind?
There are many other practices in my toolbox that I’ve gathered and used quite often to support myself when I’ve felt terrified. But Running Energy is one of my favorites. The best way to learn how is to practice when you’re feeling good and in a resourceful state. It’s a quick and easy way to drop out of mind and into a deep, sentient pool of sweet, calming energy. Losing the mind becomes easy and no worries; the mind is never lost for long. It is like a heat sink missile and always finds it’s way home to you. We’re just teaching it to help us create loving acceptance for our energy so that it can feel comfortable.
Taking a few minutes each day to practice drawing our awareness away from thoughts and back down into a warm, sentient puddle is one of the best ways to heal anxiety. In time, whenever your mind goes to scary thoughts, you will remember that you have a choice to believe those scary stories you’ve been believing about the future are real, which could easily cause you to have a panic attack or you can spend a few minutes Running Energy liberate yourself from anxiety.
HH
Linda Charles, 916-206-0927
www.processcoaching.com/linda
